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Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Poetry for Children: Guinea Pig Town and Other Animal Poems

Peta Jinnath Andersen is an Online Consultant for Walker Books Australia. Her absolute, forever-and-ever favourite children's books areGuess How Much I Love You, A Bit Lost, Howl's Moving Castle, A Wrinkle in Time, A Monster Calls, and Winnie-the-Pooh.When we think of poetry, we rarely think of children. It’s usually Keats and
Wordsworth, or Henry Lawson, or Seamus Heaney and Billy Collins, or dozens of
other wonderful wordsmiths who come to mind. And much as I love them, and share
them with my son (it is never, ever too early to share the rhythms of
language), reading adult poetry aloud is vastly different to reading poetry
intended for children.

Poetry,
whether it be for children or adults, has value—especially when read aloud. The
differences are usually about pitch, tone, and subject: poetry written
specifically for children relates in some way to their experience, in a way
that which is written for adults cannot. Moving house, being out bush, animals
(movement, sounds, behaviours), play…there are dozens of things and ideas kids
can relate to, recite, and share.

Love
the idea of reading poetry with your kids, but stuck for where to get started?
Look for illustrated works, like one of our favourites, Lorraine Marwood’s Guinea Pig Town and Other Animal Poems.
The illustrations help younger children verbalise and discuss the words. And
don’t be afraid to play! Ask questions, make silly noises, appreciate language!
The marvellous thing about poetry is that there is no wrong way to read it—it can
be happy or sad or hilarious. You can experiment and have fun and talk about it
in a way that’s not possible with straight up prose. And when paired with
illustrations, like the wombat shown here, words become something almost
tangible and exciting.

Lorraine
Marwood was born and raised in rural Victoria and has lived for most of her
married life on a dairy farm with her husband and their six children. Lorraine
is an award-winning poet who has been widely published in literary magazines
across Australia, as well as magazines in the UK, USA, New Zealand and Canada. Read
more of her poetry in A Ute Picnic and
Other Australian Poems, Ratwhiskers
and Me and Star Jumps, which was
short listed for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards 2010,
Lower Primary Category; received a Notable mention in the Children s Book
Council of Australia Awards, 2010; and won the Prime Minister’s Literary
Awards, Children’s Fiction, 2010.

1 comment:

I love the way Guinea Pig Town and Other Animal Poems encourages kids to play with words and look at the world in new creative ways!

I read lots of poetry to my kids. One thing I found with my students who hadn't encountered much poetry before is that humour was a definite hook. Look for poems that have laugh-out-loud moments when you start.